NABC Chapter 205 A Special Banquet
Chapter 205 A Special Banquet
Chapter 205 A Special Banquet
Abbott saw that Mike had been reading the newspaper for a little too long, so he patted Mike on the shoulder and joked:
"What's wrong? Do you like to see others praise you so much?"
"No, it's just that it's my first time in the newspaper, and I feel a little special."
Mike quickly put down the newspaper in his hand and responded with a smile.
Although he still had a smiling face, Mike was not calm in his heart.
If he guessed correctly, this photo would most likely bring up the plot of next school year.
"Okay, now that everyone is here, let's go to the restaurant." Mario looked at the clock in the hall and said, "This time I specially prepared the flank meat of Romanian horned dinosaur!"
As soon as these words were spoken, Professor Flitwick's eyes lit up and he stood up and walked towards the restaurant.
Mike was confused. He didn't know what side meat was, but he knew that the Romanian ceratosaurus was a large fire dragon native to Romania. They had black-green scales and long golden horns. When hunting, they would use the long horns to gore their prey to death before eating.
The horns of this fire dragon have extremely high medicinal value. After being ground into powder, they can be used as the recipe for many rare potions. In the international market, its horns are classified as Class B products (extremely rare). It is for this reason that the Romanian horned dragons were almost slaughtered.
Now Romania, the native place of the Romanian ceratosaurus, has become the most important fire dragon sanctuary in the world. Wizards from all over the world study the Romanian ceratosaurus there and raise it intensively. It is thanks to the efforts of these wizards that the Romanian ceratosaurus has not become extinct.
At this time, Abbott appeared again, like a worm in Mike's stomach, and began to explain to Mike the concepts of Romanian ceratosaurus and side meat.
However, due to the conflict between Muggle common sense and wizard common sense, it took Mike a long time to understand what flank meat was.
Flank meat is the meat from the side of a dragon, but not all meat from the side can be called flank meat. If you have to describe it, flank meat is equivalent to fillet in beef, a kind of loin meat from the upper loin of a dragon.
While Abbott and Mike were explaining, everyone continued walking and soon arrived at the restaurant.
When everyone came and sat down at the long table in the middle of the restaurant, an elderly wizard in butler's clothes and several young people also in butler's clothes began to serve the dishes.
If Mike remembered correctly, this was the first time he saw servants and housekeepers in Abbott's house, so he asked:
"Uncle Mario, do you have a housekeeper at home?"
"Of course. After all, the Free Family is a family with a history of thousands of years." Uncle Mario laughed and said, "Let me introduce you. This is Pero, the butler of our Free Family, and those young men are Pero's grandsons."
"Hello, distinguished guest!"
The old man in butler uniform named Pero waited until Uncle Mario finished speaking before bowing to Mike and Professor Flitwick and saying hello, and Mike and Flitwick immediately replied with a hello.
After both parties finished greeting each other, Uncle Mario continued, "Pero's family has been the stewards and servants of our Forli family for generations, but times have changed now. The number of wizards is dwindling, so I let the talented children work in the Forli family's industry, and the remaining untalented ones stay in the manor to work. In addition, those house-elves don't like to appear in front of guests, so it's normal that you haven't seen them."
Although Mario's words were rather obscure, Mike still understood what he meant.
The so-called talent should refer to magical talent, which means that the human butlers and servants who remain in Foley Manor should all be duds without magical talent.
Mike couldn't help but be slightly moved. Since wizards can use magic, their work efficiency is several times that of ordinary people. Just look at Filch, cleaning the corridor can be done by a few others, but he has to work hard for half a day. To be honest, when it comes to doing housework, a house-elf is comparable to dozens of ordinary people.
Uncle Mario's arrangement is completely out of pity for the Squibs. The Squibs don't know magic, so they can't integrate into the wizarding world. But since they have lived in the wizarding world since they were young, they can't integrate into the Muggle world. If Uncle Mario hadn't raised them, they would have starved to death sooner or later.
"But Pero, your clan is still fertile!" Uncle Mario said with emotion, "Unlike us, we were too obsessed with pure blood in the past and always married within a small circle, which led to a significant decrease in fertility. In this generation, there are only Abbot and Ellen as children."
Mike, who was still lamenting the fate of the squib, opened his eyes wide as soon as he heard this. He looked at Abbott, who was sitting next to him, in shock, as if to say, "You actually have a sister?"
Abbott did not disappoint Mike, and explained with an awkward smile: "Ellen is the same age as you. She goes to school in Beauxbatons, France, so you haven't seen her. They will have their summer vacation a few days later, so you should be able to see her if you come over in a few days."
Mike suddenly realized.
By this time, the dishes were almost served. Since they had been to the Ministry of Magic before, they had lunch a little late, and Mike and Abbot were already starving. But since the dishes served at this time were ordinary Muggle dishes, they only ate a little, leaving room for the finale.
Everyone was talking and laughing while eating lunch, and finally, the much-anticipated Romanian Ceratops flank meat was served.
Several young men in butler uniforms carried four huge porcelain plates in front of Mike and others. Each of these round plates was about 1 meter in diameter. Maybe because the plates were too thick, they needed two people to carry them. Mike also noticed that they were sweating profusely when they carried the plates to the table in front of Mike.
Seeing this, Mike became more certain of his previous judgment. These people were indeed duds. Any other wizard would have used the levitation spell long ago.
Turning his attention back to the giant plate in front of him, Mike saw a large steak neatly placed on the plate, covered with a layer of dark brown sauce, exuding a rich aroma. In the empty space on the plate, there were a few pieces of broccoli as decoration.
As Mike was observing the dragon steak carefully, four girls who looked somewhat similar to old Perot brought four bowls of cream of mushroom soup in front of them.
However, with the dragon in front, Mike and the others had no time to drink the soup. After Uncle Mario, the host, took action with his knife and fork, Mike and the others immediately started fighting.
Holding the knife and fork, he cut off a corner of the dragon steak and put it into his mouth. Immediately, a rich aroma of sauce filled Mike's mouth. After chewing for a while, the taste of the sauce gradually dissipated, and a meat flavor that was a bit similar to venison but countless times more delicious than venison gushed out. It was so delicious that Mike closed his eyes.
What amazed Mike the most was the texture of the meat. Although it didn’t melt in the mouth, it wasn’t hard to chew either. It had a very moderate texture.
Mike opened his eyes and looked at the cut on the dragon steak. He found that the dragon steak was indeed well-done, so he nodded slightly and started eating again. In order to eat it to his heart's content, Mike even cut a lot of small pieces of dragon meat at once before eating. Mike had eaten a lot of steak in his previous life, from low-end roadside fast food to high-end restaurants that cost thousands of dollars a piece.
Some people who have never eaten steak or have only eaten low-end steaks may think that well-done steak is not delicious at all, and ordering well-done steak in a restaurant will be considered unprofessional.
But in fact, the degree of doneness of steak only represents different tastes.
The reason why they feel that well-done steak is not tasty and not tender enough is simply because the steak they eat is not of high enough quality and the chef is not professional enough.
In fact, a truly top-notch steak cooked well-done is no worse than any other degree of doneness.
Mike hadn't fully grown yet, and after eating a lot of dragon steaks that had been cut in front of him, he felt a little full, so he decided to take a short break.
At this moment, his eyes fell on the cream of mushroom soup on the side.
Mike, who was a little thirsty, bent down and took a big sip. But the moment the milky white soup entered his mouth, the expression on Mike's face became extremely intoxicated.
fresh!
The unique milky aroma of cream, mixed with an extremely salty and fresh taste, rushed directly to Mike's forehead, causing a brief blank in his brain.
It took a long time for Mike to recover. He looked at the bowl of cream of mushroom soup again and saw that the mushrooms in it seemed to be a little different from the usual mushrooms. He looked at Abbott who was chewing dragon meat and said:
"What kind of mushroom is this? It's so fresh!"
"This is the foot of the walking mushroom." Abbott finally swallowed the dragon meat in his mouth before explaining, "The name of the walking mushroom means a kind of mushroom that can walk. It's not very strong but tastes very good. That's why there are no wild walking mushrooms anymore. What you are eating now is the one cultivated by the Hunter family. The foot of the walking mushroom is the most delicious part of the whole walking mushroom."
After saying that, Abbott continued his battle with the giant dragon steak, and Mike nodded and drank the special bowl of cream of mushroom soup again.
Suddenly, the huge restaurant fell silent, leaving only the sound of people chewing and swallowing.
It was not until half an hour later that Flitwick and the others stopped, and at this moment there were still quite a few dragon platoons left in front of everyone.
Although it was a bit of a waste, Uncle Mario still had the dragon meat taken away. After all, although the food was good, it was not so good that people would eat it even if their stomachs got hurt.
At this time, the servants cleaned the long table and brought some snacks and tea. After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they began to drink tea and chat.
What Uncle Mario and Professor Flitwick talked about the most was their experiences when they were studying at Hogwarts, and Mike, a student at Hogwarts, could obviously join in on this topic, so the atmosphere among everyone was quite good and no one was left out.
As they were chatting, Mike suddenly thought of something, so he asked:
"By the way, Uncle Mario, Professor Flitwick, do you know a swordsman who is good at using a European longsword? I want to learn how to use a longsword."
"What suddenly occurred to you to use a sword?"
Professor Flitwick asked in surprise.
At this time, Mike just scratched his head and said that he wanted to learn more about close combat techniques and exercise his body at the same time.
Mike originally planned to go to the Muggle world to find a fencing coach to teach him how to practice fencing, because although European longsword is considered a niche type of fencing, there are still many clubs in the UK that specialize in this, and the coaches there are also very professional. But after careful consideration, Mike gave up the idea.
Because Mike is a wizard first and a European sword user second, magic is Mike's main fighting method.
However, the Sword of Victory and Oath is a two-handed sword. Although it can be used with one hand, sword coaches in the Muggle world all hold it with both hands. This is extremely unfriendly to Mike, a wizard, because he cannot cast magic when using the Sword of Victory and Oath.
That's why Mike decided to find a swordsmanship teacher in the wizarding world. Only a swordsmanship teacher who is also a wizard can teach him how to use the sword and wand in a balanced way.
Mike was not afraid that there were no wizards who were good at using longswords. After all, Godric Gryffindor, the founder of Gryffindor House, owned a European longsword.
Although this sword of Gryffindor is not as good as the Sword of Victory and Oath in Mike's hand, it is indeed a legendary silver sword.
This sword was made by fairies. Not only is it extremely sharp, it also has the ability to absorb other substances to strengthen itself.
The reason why it can be used to destroy Horcruxes in the original book is because it absorbed the venom of the basilisk when Harry Potter used it to kill it.
Now this sword is hidden in the Sorting Hat by Dumbledore as a family heirloom of Gryffindor College. It is said that only a true Gryffindor can take the Gryffindor sword out of the Sorting Hat.
This shows that the practice of dual cultivation with monsters has existed in the wizarding world since ancient times, so Mike thinks that this technique should have been passed down.
Professor Flitwick did not disappoint Mike. After thinking for a moment, he said to Mike:
"When I was addicted to duels, I did know a wizard who was good at using long swords, but I haven't contacted him for a long time. Let me write him a letter tonight."
"Thank you, Dean!"
Mike was overjoyed when he heard this. He had the treasure all along but didn't know how to use it. He had the Sword of Victory and Oath, a magical weapon, but it could only be used under specific circumstances. This made Mike so worried that he almost lost his hair.
Now, if the wizard that Professor Flitwick mentioned can come to teach him, then the Sword of Victory and Oath will have the hope of becoming Mike's regular combat force.
(End of this chapter)